As college students head back to campuses for the new school year, they will be dealing with an added expense; the steep rise in the cost of birth control. A change in federal law known as The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 went into effect on January 1st and has caused the cost of birth control for college students to sky rocket. Before the law went into effect, drug companies who manufactured birth control were able to offer college health centers and pharmacies substantial discounts on birth control but this new law makes it too expensive for drug companies to continue offering those discounts.

When university health centers and pharmacies found out about the increase in prices, they stockpiled birth control to delay the rise of costs to their students but now those stockpiles are depleted so students must now begin to pay the increased prices if they wish to continue using some forms of birth control such as oral contraceptives.

Depending on the area of the country, some forms of oral contraceptives have gone up from about three dollars per cycle to as much as fifty five dollars per cycle. That is a huge increase for most college students who are already on tight budgets and pinching pennies.

According to the American College Health Association, nearly forty percent of women on college campuses take some form of oral contraceptives. Of course, there are still other birth control methods that are very inexpensive, such as condoms. Pharmacists and health centers on college campuses are reminding students that there are other forms of birth control still available inexpensively, like condoms, which also protect against sexually transmitted diseases.

So what does the rise of costs for birth control mean for college campuses? Will we see an increase in the number of unplanned pregnancies among college students? That’s a possibility, but only time will tell.


Source: Tahlequah Daily Press

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